1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a system, an apparatus, and a method for providing illegal use research service for image data, and more particularly to the system, the apparatus, and the method for providing illegal use research service for image data, which searching for similar images to the image data requiring the user permit.
In addition, the present invention generally relates to a system, an apparatus, and a method for providing proper use research service for image data, which research whether or not the image data which use is permitted are properly used.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a trademark research service has been provided by a third-party organization. An objective of this trademark research service is to observe other trademarks in order to protect a trademark owned by an individual or an organization. This trademark research service periodically researches a new application or a newly registered trademark, and researches whether or not there is an identical or similar trademark (name, logo, naming) requested by a client. As a result, when there is an identical or similar trademark requested by a client, the result is summarized in a cut-paper form or a list form and then reported to the client.
As an example of the trademark research service, the client fills a trademark, name, and category, which are subject to research, in a request form, and sends the request form by fax or electronic mail. In this case, the client indicates one international classification as one search unit for one trademark, and can indicate three names for each trademark. Next, by a predetermined search condition, a search is always conducted automatically at a constant precision. All trademarks being identical or including identical part to the trademark requested by the client are output as a report. In a case of the similar trademark, 30 cases from higher priority are output as a report. Published trademark data and application data, which are weekly updated, are used for a search.
On the other hand, Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2000-215238 discloses a method for detecting an illegal literary work or search for a similar image, in which a feature amount registered beforehand is compared with a feature amount obtained by a search and it is determined whether or not that searched work is an illegal literary work based on that comparison result. In this method, it is determined whether or not an URL (Uniform Resource Locator) a file name, a file size, a calculated hash value, and a like being obtained as the feature amount are identical to information registered to a feature amount DB (Database).
Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2001-216323 discloses a system in that a similarity of a design is considered, comparison data relating to similarities of a plurality of attributes concerning a product design are maintained, and a search is conducted based on the comparison data.
However, in the above-described conventional trademark research service, since a search is conducted by utilizing a special DB provided and administrated by a specific organization, it is difficult to research other locations including other databases. Since only a text search can be conducted through the Internet or the like, it is impossible to search for a feature of image data itself.
In addition, in the above-described inventions disclosed by both Japanese Laid-open Patent Applications, a wider search can be possible by using an Internet search robot. However, since a similarity or a not-similarity is determined by using predetermined data, it is difficult to determine similarities derived from a file format difference, a modification difference, and a like. Accordingly, it is not possible to search effectively with a sufficient flexibility.